How far would you go to be the best in the industry?
Jake Gyllenhaal wonderfully portrays Nightcrawler’s protagonist, the overachieving stinger (freelance photojournalist) in this 2014 Dan Gilroy film. He was the perfect man for the job because throughout the movie, he was able to maintain a look made up almost equally of determination and borderline insanity.
Bloom’s job is to capture exclusive footage of news stories which he then sells to the highest bidder. The gorier, the better.
He learned of the business by accident, after witnessing a car crash. He started acquiring his equipment by stealing, and grew his business through hard work.
But when your job depends heavily on people’s misfortunes, morality will slowly be pushed to the sidelines.
It’s hard to judge Bloom’s character during the first part of the movie. He is introduced to the audience as a thief, i.e., someone you couldn’t trust. But as his character develops, it gets easier to root for him.
He has all the qualities of a successful businessman–focus, persistence, and attention to detail. This is what makes his character so much more interesting. Viewers will be having a hard time deciding between admiration and disgust when looking at Bloom.
After beating the police to a major crime scene and filming the murderers, Bloom decides to withhold information from the authorities. At this point, he went from a lowly thief to someone who had the power to control who lives and who dies. His next decisions make his character’s motives and priorities clearer.
The movie had a lot of jaw-dropping moments. I’m not exaggerating when I say I had to hold my head and pause the video just to take in what was happening. I was trying to understand his actions while having an internal debate about whether or not to discount his decisions as legitimate business choices.
Nightcrawler is one of those movies that make you think. It makes you realize the presence of the everyday battle between morality and the desire to succeed.
It makes you ask an important question—how low are you willing to go to climb the ladder of success?
It's a Ping Thing 